Prosodic speech cues for rhythm, stress, and intonation are related pr
imarily to variations in intensity, duration, and fundamental frequenc
y. Because these cues make use of temporal properties of the speech wa
veform they are likely to be represented broadly across the speech spe
ctrum. In order to determine the relative importance of different freq
uency regions for the recognition of prosodic cues, identification of
four prosodic features, syllable number, syllabic stress, sentence int
onation, and phrase boundary location, was evaluated under six filter
conditions spanning the range from 200-6100 Hz. Each filter condition
had equal articulation index (AI) weights, AI = 0.10; p(C)(isolated wo
rds) approximate to 0.40. Results obtained with normally hearing subje
cts showed that there was an interaction between filter condition and
the identification of specific prosodic features. For example, informa
tion from high-frequency regions of speech was particularly useful in
the identification of syllable number and stress, whereas information
from low-frequency regions was helpful in identifying intonation patte
rns. In spite of these spectral differences, overall listeners perform
ed remarkably well in identifying prosodic patterns, although individu
al differences were apparent. For some subjects, equivalent levels of
performance across the six filter conditions were achieved. These resu
lts are discussed in relation to auditory and auditory-visual speech r
ecognition.